Paper long abstract:

In 2007 Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, proposed that a phased implementation of the "Trinity of Languages" project commence. Nazarbayev began this project so that Kazakhstan would be "perceived worldwide as a highly educated country whose population uses three languages. They are: Kazakh, which is the state language, Russian, which is the language of international communication, and English, which is the language of successful integration into the global community" (Almetova et al., 2017, p. 2).

According to the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan, by 2020 100% of school students will study Kazakh, Russian and English. Additionally, by 2020 all students in 5th grade and higher will take the History of Kazakhstan in Kazakh and English, while World History will be taught in Russian. Moreover, subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology and computer science will be taught in English.

Opinions in Kazakhstan differ regarding the benefits of a trilingual education program. Tussupbekova et al. (2018) emphasize that, thanks to the trilingual education model, students can improve their language skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. This knowledge, in turn, increases their opportunities for study abroad programs and future employment. However, others raise concerns about this model. They claim it is unlikely that teachers of physics, chemistry, biology and computer science - subjects that will be taught in English - know English well enough to teach their subject in this language. This is true in both rural areas of Kazakhstan, and in cities where there is also a lack of quality teachers.

In my paper I first examine the advantages and disadvantages of the trilingual education program, and then make the argument that too many potential problems (e.g. a lack of teachers capable of teaching through English, a lack of high-quality language learning materials, an insufficient level of knowledge of teachers in rural areas, etc.) may prevent it from succeeding. Moreover, I theorize that because of this trilingual education reform system the development of the state language (i.e. Kazakh) may decrease as students devote more time to both Russian and English.

Although there is much literature that simply describes Kazakhstan's Trinity Language Program, my paper explains why it may fail, thereby filling an existing gap in the literature. Upon the conclusion of the CESS Conference, I intend to publish this paper in "Central Asia Review."

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Paper long abstract:

In recent years, the economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as one of the former Soviet countries, has undergone considerable changes and development. Given the conditions inherent to globalization and free-market economy language skills at least in three languages is considered as a guarantee of economic competitiveness. Nowadays in connection with the current language policy and a political directive on trilingualism, three major languages, i.e., Kazakh, Russian and English, are mostly used in the context of Kazakhstani business communication. In accordance with official statistics the use of the state language (Kazakh) in the office-work of the state bodies has increased from 32.7 % (2006) to 96 % (2018), Russian is still very popular in private business institutions, whereas foreign companies use English and Russian in their communication. However, there is still a lack of information on the actual language use in the workplace of other organizations in Kazakhstan rather than state institutions. In this paper the survey questionnaire and a set of semi-structured interviews with Kazakhstani professionals from different types of business organizations (i.e., in the state, private sectors, national and international, etc.) were conducted to identify a real usage of Kazakh, Russian, and English in a variety of business settings, cross-cultural pragmatic failures, challenges and prospects associated with their usage. The tension between the necessity to find most progressive and optimal solutions to succeeding in contemporary global business community and the desire to maintain and develop the state language in Kazakhstani business context is of central importance in understanding current language policy in Kazakhstan. In addition, the analysis of Kazakhstani business correspondence written in three languages revealed cultural differences explained by the communicants' cognitive basis, the cultural tradition and behavioral tactics adopted in the communities. Mastering the basic components of the cognitive base of Kazakh, Russian and English cultural and linguistic communities may help to avoid many pragmatic failures in the course of intercultural business communication in Kazakhstan.

Paper long abstract:

It is becoming increasingly common for individuals from particularly different linguistic backgrounds to live in a single mixed community, and London, in this case, is no exception. It can be seen that there are societies that consist of multiple ethnic groups, people, there can easily meet with people of different nationalities who speak in various languages. In this multilingual society, the role of language is crucial, and it is necessary to people to maintain their native language in order to prevent the language shift.

The significance of this study lies in the fact that the preservation of the native language helps to appreciate the native culture and heritage, which contributes to the formation of positive self-esteem. When the native language is not maintained, important links to family and other community members may be lost. By encouraging native language use, parents can prepare the child to interact with the native language community.

To identify the language use and language behaviour of one certain ethnic group in multilingual environment, Giles et al. (1977) propose an idea to multilingualism that calls the Ethnolinguistic Vitality approach where the focus was how people of the certain linguistic community use language within host country's community.

Relying Giles et al. (1977) approach, the main aim of this paper is to identify social and linguistic background and language use with various interlocutors of bilingual speakers of one ethnic minority in London in order to find out how bilingual people tend to maintain their language in multilingual environment. As ethnic minority there, Kazakh bilingual people in London were taken. They come from bilingual society. Kazakhstan is considered as one of the five post-Soviet Central Asian countries. According to Dave (2003), the linguistic situation of Kazakhstan was the most Russian influenced case of all the Central Asian countries. He states that in many parts of Kazakhstan, especially in the north, Russian is still the dominant language. In addition, to the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan Russian is the official language, therefore as Dave (2003) considers every individual in this country can be bilingual. The structure of this paper will include the literature review, which deals with research on Ethnolinguistic Vitality approach to multilingualism. In addition, it will also discuss the methodology that has been used, in particular, data collection, the design of the questionnaire and its participants. Finally, it will analyse and discuss the received data.

Paper long abstract:

In contemporary society, the English language has acquired major significance and became prevalent in the education sphere. Since Kazakhstan has multilingual community English language has a dramatic impact on the approaches of teaching the Kazakh language. This research aims to provide analysis of integrative teaching approaches which could be used to facilitate learning Kazakh as a second language. One of the contemporary approaches considered to be effective is Task-Based Language Teaching method, which is mostly applied in the learning of the second or foreign language classes. In order to evaluate the formation of communicative competence in the Kazakh language, task-based teaching method along with code-switching would be involved as a tool for comprehensive analysis.

In this regard, the experiment was conducted within two Nazarbayev University Kazakh language classes, for the first class being applied a traditional way of teaching where teacher plays the main role and none of the innovative methods are applied. However, for the second Task-Based Language Teaching and code-switching approached are used. Consequently, both Task-Based Language teaching and code-switching allowed students to improve their interactive and communicative skills along with teamwork and presentation. Code-Switching between English and Kazakh was an interesting phenomenon to observe as Nazarbayev University is one of several institutions which implemented English policy education. Findings show that code-switching fosters quick comprehension of Kazakh language and forms socio-cultural identity while Task-Based Teaching eliminates the language barrier.

Keywords: Task-based learning Kazakh language English language

code switching integrative teaching